San Francisco – The top 10 winners in college breaking news writing were announced today in the 56th annual William Randolph Hearst Foundation’s Journalism Awards Program, in which 108 undergraduate journalism programs at universities across the nation are eligible to participate. There were 90 breaking news entries from 55 schools received in this competition.
First Place has been awarded to Kaelynn Knoernschild, a senior from Oklahoma State University. Kaelynn will receive a $2,600 scholarship for her winning article titled “‘I can’t recall an incident of this magnitude’: Community mourns after homecoming parade,” published in www. Ocolly.com. Oklahoma State University’s School of Media and Strategic Communications will receive a matching grant, as do the journalism departments of all scholarship winners. Kaelynn also qualifies to participate in the Hearst National Writing Championship which will be held this June in San Francisco.
Other scholarship winners are:
Alexa Chryssovergis, Indiana University, second place, $2,000 scholarship
Alden Woods, Indiana University, third place, $1,500 scholarship
Sarah King, Virginia Commonwealth University, fourth place, $1,000 scholarship
Tommy Hamzik, Elon University, fifth place, $1,000 scholarship
The sixth through tenth place winners receiving certificates of merit are:
Jordan Rudner, University of Texas at Austin, sixth place
Jordan Wilson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, seventh place
Bradley Saacks, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, eighth place
Erin McCarthy, Pennsylvania State University, ninth place
Stephanie Lamm, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, tenth place
Indiana University placed first in the Intercollegiate Writing Competition with the highest accumulated points from this year’s writing competitions. They are followed by: Pennsylvania State University; Oklahoma State University; Northwestern University; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; University of Montana, Arizona State University; Elon University; University of Oregon. The top three winners earn $10,000, $4,000 and $2,000 respectively. The top ten winners are awarded Hearst medallions.
Judging the writing competitions this year are: Nicole Carroll, Vice President/News and Editor, The Arizona Republic; Mike Leary, Senior Vice President and Editor, San Antonio Express-News; and David Zeeck, President and Publisher, The News Tribune.
The Hearst Journalism Awards Program is conducted under the auspices of accredited schools of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication and fully funded and administered by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation. The 14 monthly competitions consist of five writing, two photojournalism, one radio, two TV and four multimedia, with Championship finals in all divisions. The program awards up to $500,000 in scholarships and grants annually.
